Private versus public ownership (the cost)

Does global warming exist?

Ok so there are many people out in the big wide world who believe that global warming is true,there are just as many sceptics who think it is all a con.

Regardless of who is right or wrong the main people who fall foul of these things are Jo public.

We are the ones who have to pay up every time an ice berg melts, and why? because the Great british government sold off the silverware.

Back in the 1970's all utilities were provided by the government, gas electric and water were a constant within every household throughout the land then came the great fraud when alll the utilities were put out to tender.

It was so we are told so that they would be free to invest in new technologies and provide better customer service to the customer, well excuse my language but bollocks.

Since these companies were De-regulated and turned into cash cows for the privileged few many billions of taxpayers money has been plowed into them, not for the new state of the art service provided but just to keep the gas and electric flowing.

Yes it may have been prudent to cut the amount of staff used when these companies were public, it may have been a good move to cut the number of individual offices controlling the distribution of electricity But this could have been done through negotiation with unions and management. Instead the whole lot was shipped out of government control.

As soon as the De-regulation was brought in we the taxpayer immediately lost millions of pounds of revenue generated each year simply by us paying our bills. Instead of the money going into the treasury it went into private pockets and bank accounts.

This of course was made worse when it was realised that the new private companies had little or no intention of holding up their end of the bargain when it came down to improvement of service.Indeed for may the service the received was far inferior to that which they were getting previous.

Nowadays of course the problem is expounded on because not one of our national utility companies is owned within the confines of the UK that is right every penny we pay for our gas and electric along with our water now flows out of the country so whereas before privatisation we would get 100% of any revenue(profit) generated today we are lucky if the treasury gets back more than half of the subsidies it still pays to these foreign owners.

Corporate pirates wrecking the economy

This figure of course does not include the amount of tax avoided by these modern day pirates given license to rip off consumers without restraint. Oddly the latest claims by the Labour party are that they will suspend all price rises and introduce more competition to the Markets during a 2 year hiatus should they be voted into power in 2015.

Why the F*** should we the customers believe they would actually do as they say given that 99% of the crap that comes out of a politicians mouth is a lie. Even if they do manage somehow to break up the Big six and introduce more competition I for one do not believe it will make a great deal of difference to the amount I am currently paying. This believe is down to the fact that there will still be shareholders sitting at the back of the room demanding handouts for every penny paid into the system.

As private companies the management are duty bound to look after their shareholders by producing increased profits on a yearly basis something which will not be done by investing the amount of money needed to upgrade the ageing infrastructure which was given to them when the utilities were sold far too cheaply.

Just as an afterthought did any of you from the UK receive a refund of £50.00 which was given for every customer to the energy companies to pass on? NO didn't think so!

Bring back Nationalisation is what I say it may have been clunky and riddled with management but it need not be that way, a not for profit similar in make up to the one running East coast railways would in time be returning any profit back where it belongs to the tax payer who paid for the initial building of the whole distribution system. Yes it may initially cost us as a nation but at least we could all afford in the future to put the lights on without fear of bankruptcy.

One more thing why are we intent on paying China to build nuclear power stations to produce electricity for which they will be paid a guaranteed profit on the back of our own money? government have a lot to answer for Their sheer incompetency for one.